Water Cooler: Help Wanted

Talent seekers rejoice

The next generation of online job sites—all of which launched this fall—could make recruiting a whole lot easier. Rather than sifting through scores of dubious résumés drawn by salary and job description, you're in control now. At Mkt10.com and Jobkabob.com, matching technology pairs up what job seekers want and their skills and experience with what you're looking for. Candidates don't see available jobs until there's a match, so they can't tailor their pitch just to you—and they can only express interest in a job, not apply for it. (The services are free to workers, and because their profiles are anonymous until there's a match employers want to pursue, they're a boon for passive job seekers.) Still, most employees are found through referrals. H3.com removes the hassle of offering an incentive to someone who finds you a good hire, whether it's an employee or a member of your network. It tracks who steers candidates your way and whether they work out, and then handles the administrivia of paying a finder's fee. The best part of all of these services? Rather than pay as you go, you pay only for performance. . . .

Sex doesn't sell

49% of women reported that they'd occasionally used their sexuality to try to get ahead.

In a recent study of 164 female MBA graduates by an organizational behavior professor at Tulane University, 49% of women reported that they'd occasionally used their sexuality to try to get ahead. And it appears to backfire. If you answer yes to statements such as "I draw attention to my legs by crossing them provocatively when in meetings or sitting with a group of men at work," apparently you earn less and receive fewer promotions than women who don't think they're Sharon Stone. . . .

What you can get fired for these days

Getting into an escalating email fight over a missing sandwich, as two Australian secretaries at a law firm did. The exchange ended up being distributed to most of the staff and ultimately posted online. . . . A writer for World Wrestling Entertainment reputedly lost his job after criticizing the fighting skills of two women wrestlers. . . . The California Third District Court of Appeal upheld the firing of a systems administrator at a Sacramento telco for failing a drug test even though he was using doctor-sanctioned medical marijuana. . . . A developer at a mortgage company was canned after taking a leftover piece of pizza from a different team's potluck without permission. No word on whether it was pepperoni or anchovy. . . .

A version of this article appeared in the November 2005 issue of Fast Company magazine.